MICHELLE Mone's MJM International has made a heavy loss in its final financial year before its assets were transferred to Ultimo Brands International, its parent company.
MJM, which has now ceased trading, made a retained loss of £780,550 for the 11 months to December 31, 2013, accounts newly available at Companies House reveal.
The accounts, which come a year after the company posted a retained profit of £343,082 in 2012, cover the period in which Sri Lankan-based MAS Holdings acquired a 51 per cent stake in the business. MAS is the ultimate owner of Ultimo.
The investment from the Asian leisure and swimwear manufacturer came on the same day Ms Mone acquired the shares in the business held by her former husband Michael Mone, and Thomas Walker.
Ms Mone now holds a 49 per cent stake in the company, having previously held a 47 per cent shareholding.
MJM has previously linked losses at the company to the Mones' marital breakdown, and yesterday confirmed the most recent had been anticipated and was also connected to those circumstances.
However, Ultimo Brands International is confident the business will return to profitability in its 2015 financial year.
The notes to the MJM accounts state: "The company has made significant losses for the 11-month period to December 31, 2013 and the Directors anticipate that the company will be loss making for the next 12 months. However, due to changes in strategy going forward, as well as the support of MAS Capital (Private) Limited, the Directors anticipate that the company will return to profit following the strategy changes."
The latest accounts for Ultimo Brands International show the company made a retained loss of £48,673 for the period ended December 31, 2013.
A spokeswoman said this could be attributed to the legal costs involved in the change of ownership from MJM to Ultimo Brands International.
The company, whose ultimate controlling party is the Sri Lankan registered MAS Holdings (Private Limited), invested £3,386,930 to acquire a 100 per cent holding in MJM International during the year.
Abbreviated financial statements for Ultimo Brands International show that the company had shareholder funds of £3,338,257 at the period end.
The trade and assets of MJM International were hived up into Ultimo Brands International following year end, the accounts state.
Ultimo founder Michelle Mone said: "The performance of MJM International, which has now ceased trading, is no reflection of the performance of Ultimo.
"Ultimo now operates under the trading name Ultimo Brands International. The company's balance sheet is in a strong position and the business is on target to return to profitability next year.
"I am incredibly excited about the future of Ultimo. We are expanding rapidly, with a pipeline of 12 new stores opening across the UK in the next 12 months."
Ultimo opened its first House of Fraser concession in Manchester last week, and confirmed that work on its outlet in the retailer's Glasgow store will start next week.
The spokeswoman added: "Ultimo's balance sheet reflects Michelle Mone's and MAS Holdings' continued investment in the business.
"As a result of this investment, we have more than doubled our workforce since the change of ownership and laid plans to expand internationally."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article